THE  MOUNTAIN  TREES 


OF 


SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA 


UC-NRLF 


EDMUND  C,  JAEGER 


THE  MOUNTAIN  TREES 


OF 


SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA 


TAMARACKS  ON  SAN  ANTONIO  PEAK 

Standing  in  luxurious  forests  or  huddled  together  in 
irregular  groups  on  the  wind-swept  ridges,  Tamaracks 
occur  on  all  our  highest  mountain  peaks — not  the  eastern 
tree  (Larix,  also  called  tamarack  or  hackmatack)  with 
its  deciduous  leaves  and  slender  stem,  but  a  true  pine, 
majestic  and  strong,  with 

"Huge  trunks!  and  each  particular  trunk  a  growth 
Of  intertwisted  fibres  serpentine, 
Up-coiling,    and   inveterately   convolved." 

— Wordsworth. 


The  Mountain  Trees 

.  .  of  .  . 

Southern  California 

A  Simple 

Guide -Book 

for  Tree  Lovers 


By 

EDMUND  C.  JAEGER,  B.Sc. 


Illustrated  with  Line-Drawings  by  the  Author 


Copyright,  1919 
By  Edmund  C.  Jaeger 


Printed  by 

Pasadena  Star- News  Publishing  Co. 
Pasadena,  California 


TO    MY    MOTHER 

Who  in  early  youth  sent  me  out 
to  play  among  the  wild  gardens 
of  flowers,  and  to  seek  the 
companionship  of  noble  trees. 


41C493 


FOREWORD 


This  book  is  written  for  those  who 
want  to  know  our  mountain  trees  and 
yet  know  little  about  technical  botany. 
It  is  the  "green-horn's"  own  book,  and 
yet  the  author  believes  it  has  much  of 
interest  to  all  students  of  trees.  To  en- 
joy it  best  you  must  carry  it  into  the 
forest  and  read  the  descriptions  with 
the  living  trees  before  you.  It  is  then 
that  their  features  take  definite  form  in 
the  mind,  and  their  spiritual  values  be- 
come apparent.  I  urge  all  to  make 
careful  and  repeated  study  of  the 
drawings,  as  it  is  the  surest  means  of 
early  recognition  of  the  different  trees. 


By  a  tree  is  meant  any  woody  plant 
with  well-defined  central  stem  or  trunk 
and  a  height  of  at  least  15  feet.  All 
woody  plants  which  retain  their  lateral 
shoots  so  that  their  branches  are  formed 
near  the  ground  and  are  less  than  15 
feet  high  are  properly  called  shrubs  and 
are  not  considered  in  this  book.  The 
reader  will  do  well  to  bear  this  in  mind. 
Arbitrarily  the  author  has  considered  as 
mountain  trees  only  those  occurring  at 
an  elevation  above  3500  feet. 

In  dealing  with  the  pines,  I  have  ar- 
ranged them  in  the  order  of  the  number 
of  needles  in  a  bundle,  an  easy  classifi- 
cation which  will  be  helpful  to  many. 
Since  each  species  bears  in  its  bark,  leaf, 
and  cone  the  most  prominent  distin- 
guishing characters,  synoptic  descrip- 
tions of  these  are  given  at  the  beginning 
of  each  sketch. 

The  valuable  assistance  of  Mr. 
Charles  F.  Saunders  and  Mr.  S.  B.  Par- 
ish in  making  suggestions  is  cordially 
acknowledged,  and  thanks  are  returned 


to  all  others  who  in  any  way  have  helped 
in  the  preparation  of  this  volume,  espe- 
cially to  Mr.  Carl  Eytel,  who  has  fur- 
nished the  sketches  of  the  mountain  ani- 
mals. 

EDMUND  C.  JAEGER. 

Palm  Springs,  California. 


fgffiL  ~'     ^ 

PINYON 

1.  Branch  and  cone  (one-fourth  natural  size) 

2.  The  sign-board  Pinyon  at  the  head  of  the  Van  De 

Venter  Trail,  Santa  Rosa  Mountains 


ONE-LEAF  PINYON 

Pinus  monophylla  TORR  &  FREM. 

BARK — Dark  brown,  reddish  brown  or  almost  black, 
finely  and  irregularly  fissured,  nearly  an  inch 
thick. 

LEAVES — Single  (or  very  occasionally  double),  1%  to 
2%  inches  long,  stiff,  curved  upward  and  sharp- 
pointed 

CONE— Almost  globular,  chocolate  brown,  2%  to  3% 
inches  long,  made  up  of  few  thick  scales  with 
blunt  summits  and  bearing  a  minute  prickle,  ex- 
ceedingly resinous;  seeds  wingless. 

This  humble  dweller  of  the  desert 
mountain  slopes  is,  as  a  furnisher  of 
food,  one  of  the  most  valuable  of  the 
pines.  It  is  the  Indians'  own  tree,  and 
the  thousands  of  acres  of  Pinyon  forests 
are  his  wild  orchard  from  which  for 
ages  he  has  depended  for  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  winter's  food  supply. 
Some  of  the  oldest  and  best  defined 
trails  leading  out  of  the  deserts  and  into 
the  mountains  were  those  which  led  to 
the  forests  of  Pinyons.  No  doubt  it  was 
a  beautiful  sight  to  watch  the  bands  of 
gaily  dressed  Indians  as  they  made  their 
way  at  autumn  time  over  these  ancient 
trails  and  stopped  at  night  at  the  camps 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

on  the  way  up  the  mountains.  The  re- 
mains of  the  old  blackened  caves,  near 
some  lone  spring  where  the  camps  were 
made  at  the  end  of  the  day's  journey  are 
yet  found,  and  the  mortars  where  the 
daily  portions  of  acorn  meal  were 
ground  are  still  waiting  to  be  used  as 
of  old. 

Once  the  nutting  grounds  were 
reached,  the  cones  were  beaten  from  the 
trees  with  long  poles,  gathered  in  piles, 
and  light  brush  fires  built  over  them. 
The  heat  caused  the  scales  of  the  cones 
to  gape  open,  thus  allowing  the  fat, 
brown,  speckled  nuts  to  be  plucked  from 
their  pockets.  Sometimes  the  cones 
were  beaten  from  the  trees  in  midsum- 
mer while  yet  green,  roasted,  and  then 
split  open  with  a  hatchet  and  the  nuts 
extracted.  In  either  case  the  nuts  were 
generally  roasted  before  being  eaten,  a 
process  which  added  much  to  their 
flavor.  According  to  Dr.  Barrows,  the 
Cahuilla  Indians  of  the  Colorado  Desert 
called  the  Pinyons  te-wat-em,  the  cones 
10 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

te-wat,  and  the  little  almond-like  cavi- 
ties in  which  the  nuts  lie,  he-push  or 
"eyes"  of  the  te-wat,  a  very  beautiful 
figure. 

The  largest,  practically  pure  and  ex- 
tensive forest  of  one-leaf  pines  to  be 
found  in  our  southern  mountains  is  on 
the  desert  slope  of  the  Santa  Rosa  range, 
a  locality  known  as  Pinyon  Flats,  and 
surely  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  pic- 
turesque spots  imaginable.  The  Pinyon 
is  also  found  on  the  back  ranges  of  the 
San  Bernardinos  and  Sierra  Madres, 
forming  an  extensive  but  narrow  belt  all 
along  the  Mohave  Desert.* 

A  peculiar  weirdness  and  sadness 
haunts  these  sun-drenched  open  forests 
of  the  Pinyon.  The  hallowed  hush  of 

*The  single  tree  of  the  Indian  Nut  Pine  found  near 
Pasadena  on  Mt.  Wilson  has  a  history.  "On  October 
10,  1887,  Jason  and  Owen  Brown  (sons  of  John  Brown 
of  Harper's  Ferry  fame)  built  a  cairn  on  this  moun- 
tain top.  They  noticed  this  rare  tree,  with  its  roots  so 
much  denuded  by  rain  wash  and  wind  that  it  was  ready 
to  die;  and  they  gathered  and  brought  soil  in  their 
little  dinner  pail  to  pack  around  its  exposed  roots, 
thus  saving  its  life  at  that  time,  and  hence  it  has  been 
called  the  *Osawatamie  pine  tree.'  Then  on  August  15, 
1893,  Dr.  Ried  found  it  perishing  again  from  the  same 

11 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 


the  desert  is  upon  them.  Here  the  fre- 
quenter of  the  arid  hills  loves  to  dwell, 
his  only  visitants  being  the  little  wafts 
of  stray,  whispering  breezes,  or  now 
and  then  a  sweet-voiced  Desert  Spar- 
row, or  playful  lizard.  Here  in  the 
silence  and  solitude  he  hears 

In  the  still,  sad  music  of  the  wild 
The  chords  that  soothe  his  heart. 


causes;  Mrs.  Reid  gathered  loose  dirt  and  mulch  from 
between  rocks  and  dragged  it  on  an  old  barley  sack 
which  she  had  found,  to  the  roots  of  the  tree,  while  the 
Doctor  laid  up  a  wall  of  rocks  on  the  lower  side  to 
hold  the  dirt  in  place;  and  so»  its  life  was  saved  again. 
They  also  broke  off  some  of  its  dead  branches  to  give 
the  tree  a  better  chance." — History  of  Pasadena — Ried. 
The  yellowish,  brush-like  mistletoe  growing  on  the 
one-leaf  pine  is  the  Arceuthobium  divarication  ENGELM. 

12 


TAMARACK  OR  LoDGErPoLE  PINE 

Pinus  Murrayana  MURR. 

BARK — light  gray,  but  somewhat  pinkish  or  brown- 
ish in  the  open  forest;  very  thin  (^4  in)  and  cov- 
ered with  thin  scales. 

LEAVES— In  2's,  1  to  2%  inches  long;  stiff;  yellowish 
green. 

CONE — Oblong  when  closed,  globose  when  open,  red- 
dish brown;  1  to  1%  inches  long;  scales  with 
blunt  summits,  and  bearing  a  minute  prickle; 
seeds  winged. 

The  Murray  pine  grows  only  at  high 
altitudes  in  our  southern  mountains,  be- 
ing confined  to  the  close  vicinity  of  the 
highest  peaks — San  Gorgonio,  San  Ja- 
cinto,  San  Antonio  and  Sugar  Loaf, 
where  it  is  the  dominant  tree,  though  it 
is  noted  as  occurring  locally  at  Big  Bear 
Lake  (north  and  south  sides  at  6700 
feet — "A  queer  misplacement  of  the 
species  and  apparently  out  of  its 
zone."),  and  at  Bluff  Lake.  In  com- 
pany with  the  White  Fir,  the  Tamarack 
frequents  the  swampy  flower-starred 
meadows  and  moist  mountain  slopes,  or 
with  Pinus  flexilis  climbs  the  rocky 
steeps  of  the  highest  peaks,  running  out 
along  the  north  and  east  wind  swept 

13 


MURRAY   PINE 

Cone  and  branch   (natural  size). 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

ridges.  The  low,  thick  and  twisted 
trunks,  ice  covered  half  the  year, 
creep  slowly  for  shelter  close  to  the 
rocky  steeps,  their  gnarled  and  dwarfed 
interlaced  branches  flung  like  banners 
away  from  the  wind.  Some  of  these 
depressed  flat-topped  heroes  are  found 
to  be  500  to  800  years  old. 

With  its  exceedingly  thin  bark  and  its 
pitch  besmeared  trunk,  the  Tamarack  is 
a  tree  especially  susceptible  to  destruc- 
tion by  fire.  Happily  the  few  found 
in  our  mountains  of  Southern  Califor- 
nia are  by  their  isolation  and  location  at 
a  high  altitude,  largely  freed  from  this 
danger.  Many  are  yearly  riven  by  bolts 
of  lightning,  however,  and  the  spiral 
grooves  where  the  electric  fire  has 
plowed  its  way  down  the  trunk,  ripping 
away  the  bark,  are  everywhere  to  be 
seen.  But  the  sultry  weather  that  brings 
the  lightning  also  brings  drenching 
showers  of  rain  to  these  high  altitudes 
and  the  few  fires  thus  started  are  soon 
extinguished.  Most  of  the  fallen  timber 

15 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

in  the  Tamarack  forests  results  from  the 
heavy  wind  storms  which  sweep  with 
such  fury  through  the  mountains  during 
the  winter  months. 

The  Murray  pine  is  not,  like  the 
Ponderosa,  a  friendly  tree.  Its  very  re- 
membrance calls  to  the  mind  pictures  of 
chilly  bleak  days  spent  under  cool  damp 
shades.  Storm  battered — often,  when 
found  in  gorges,  rock-wounded,  bleed- 
ing everywhere  with  resin,  and  with 
fallen  heroes  strewn  about  in  every  di- 
rection— they  are  a  type  of  utter  bleak- 
ness and  dejection,  especially  at  even- 
time  after  the  setting  of  the  sun  when 
the  still,  lonely  coldness  of  the  high  alti- 
tudes has  settled  upon  the  mountain. 

The  small  globular  cones  are  borne  in 
great  profusion  and  their  purplish  and 
yellow  hues  make,  when  ripe,  a  most 
striking  effect  as  that  of  blossoms.  They 
fall  at  the  end  of  the  second  season 
strewing  the  ground  with  a  profusion  of 
dainty,  prickly  burrs  which  are  the  de- 
light of  every  artist. 

16 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

The  name  Lodge-pole  has  been  given 
in  reference  to  the  use  the  plains  In- 
dians of  the  Middle  West  made  of  the 
slender,  straight  stems  in  erecting  their 
lodges  or  dwellings.  Tamarack  was  the 
name  given  by  the  Indians  and  adopted 
by  the  settlers.  Murrayana,  the  spe- 
cific name,  commemorates  Mr.  John 
Murray  of  Edinburgh. 

Among  the  happy  June  bird  residents 
of  these  quiet  forests  are  the  Sierra  her- 
mit thrushes  whose  bell-like  songs  fill 
the  air  with  exalted  melody — their  first 
strains  arousing  "emotions  which  the 
regularly  falling  cadences  carry  to  a  per- 
fect close."  This  mellow  flute-like  song 
always  carries  to  me  a  note  of  lone- 
someness,  perhaps  because  the  soul-stir- 
ring cadences  are  so  often  heard  amid 
the  intense  stillness  of  the  cool  forests. 

And  do  you  know  the  chipmunks — 
those  sputtering  bundles  of  electric  en- 
ergy— who  climb  the  tall  timber  and 
scamper  with  such  explosive  chipper- 
ings  along  the  fallen  logs?  So  full  are 

17 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

they  of  abounding  curiosity  that  never 
can  they  hear  a  squeaking  noise  with- 
out poking  their  little  round,  brown, 
fuzzy  heads  out  into  view.  I  like  to  tap 
the  logs  gently  with  a  stick  and  watch 
them  come  out  of  their  hiding.  Once  I 
counted  twenty-one  that  came  up  on  a 
single  fallen  pine,  every  inch  of  their 
bodies  quivering  with  excitement. 

But  dear  little  fellows  as  they  are, 
they  cannot  keep  their  paws  out  of  mis- 
chief, as  the  following  notes  taken  from 
Grinneirs  Biota  show:  "On  the  upper 
South  Fork  of  the  Santa  Ana  River, 
June  28,  1905, 1  heard,"  says  Mr.  Grin- 
nell,  "the  scolding  of  a  chipmunk  accom- 
panied by  the  excited  bill-snapping  of  a 
pair  of  wood  pewees.  I  arrived  on  the 
scene  in  time  to  see  the  birds  being 
robbed  by  a  chipmunk;  in  fact  the  job 
was  complete,  only  parts  of  the  egg 
shells  being  in  evidence  when  I  climbed 
up.  The  nest  was  ten  feet  from  the 
ground  and  six  feet  out  towards  the  end 
of  a  horizontal  pine  branch." 

18 


THE  COULTER  PINE 

Pinus  Coulteri  LAMBERT. 

BARK — Dark     or     blackish-brown,     broken    into     wide 

longitudinal  fissures,  ridges  scaly. 
LEAVES — 3  in  a  bundle,  6%  to  12  inches  long,  deep 

bluish  or  yellowish-green,  stiff. 
CONE — Extremely  heavy,  10  to  14  inches  long,  spinous 

processes    of    scales    thick     and    spurlike.     Seeds 

winged. 

This  magnificent  species  of  pine  was 
discovered  by  Dr.  John  Merle  Coulter, 
the  distinguished  American  botanist,  on 
the  mountains  of  Santa  Lucia  near  the 
Mission  of  San  Antonio.  It  goes  by  the 
name  of  Big  Cone  Pine  bearing  the  larg- 
est cone  of  all  its  family.  When  mature 
the  cone  is  as  large  as  a  big  pineapple 
and  attains  a  weight  of  four  to  eight 
pounds.  Foolish  is  the  man  who  chooses 
the  shelter  of  a  Coulter  pine  for  a  bed 
site  or  napping  spot.  Should  some  feast- 
ing squirrel  or  a  gust  of  wind  set  loose 
one  of  these  big  gummy  cones  and  let  it 
come  crashing  to  the  ground,  the  conse- 
quences would  be  serious  or  perhaps 
fatal  if  the  cone  struck  the  napper  on 

19 


COULTER   PINE 

Cone  and  leaf  bundle   (reduced  to  one-fourth 
natural  size 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

the  head.  I  have  personally  seen  sev- 
eral narrow  escapes  and  when  camping 
I  now  take  care  to  lay  my  blankets  be- 
yond the  borders  of  a  Coulter  pine. 

This  tree  is  particularly  a  dweller  of 
dry  rocky  ridges  and  slopes ;  in  fact,  he 
seems  to  be  at  home  nowhere  else. 
Sometimes  he  wanders  far  down  the 
boulder-strewn  washes  and  may  be  the 
first  conifer  you  see  as  you  come  into 
the  mountains.  He  is  then  a  solitary 
creature  and  weathers  the  heat  of  the 
lower  altitudes  alone.  The  Coulter  pine 
is  rather  frequent  in  the  coniferous  for- 
ests of  the  San  Bernardino,  San  Jacinto, 
Cuyamaca,  Palomar  and  Laguna  Moun- 
tains, but  less  so  in  the  San  Gabriel 
Range. 

The  whole  tree  has  a  look  of  open- 
ness not  noticeable  in  the  pines  of  high- 
er and  more  moist  locations.  Though 
ordinarily  of  medium  height,  60  feet  or 
so,  the  main  stem  may  grow,  in  espe- 
cially favorable  locations,  into  a  much 
more  robust  and  taller  tree.  The  side 
21 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 


branches  are  long  and  pole-like,  the  low- 
er ones  sweeping  far  outward  and  down- 
ward, often  reaching  the  ground.  The 
needles  are  exceptionally  long,  often  at- 
taining a  length  of  twelve  inches.  They 
are  mostly  found  on  the  ends  of  the 
thick  stems  grouped  in  thick  broom-like 
clusters. 

Since  the  cones  are  so  heavy,  they 
seldom  reach  the  ground  in  a  whole 
condition.  As  you  find  them  on  the 
ground  they  are  often  much  the  worse 
for  their  fall.  On  the  cone-bearing 
stalks  are  generally  found  a  few  per- 
sistent scales  which  parted  from  the 
cone  as  it  broke  away  and  fell.  Young 
trees  20  and  30  years  old  bear  cones 
generally  in  three-year  cycles.  The 
cones  mature  by  August  of  the  second 
season.  The  Anthony  gray  squirrels  are 
very  fond  of  the  big  fat  nuts  inside  and 
many  a  cone  is  harvested  long  before 
mature  by  these  little  workmen  of  the 
woods.  It  is  very  strange  but  the  squir- 
rel never  gets  his  paws  gummed  up 
22 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

when  gathering  his  nuts  although  the 
cones  are  about  the  stickiest  things 
imaginable.  "The  squirrel,"  says  Thor- 
eau,  "has  the  key  to  this  conical  and 
spiny  chest  of  compartments.  If  you 
would  be  convinced  how  differently 
armed  the  squirrel  is  naturally  for  deal- 
ing with  pitch-pine  cones,  just  try  to  get 
one  open  with  your  teeth.  He  who  ex- 
tracts seeds  from  a  single  cone  with  the 
aid  of  a  knife  will  be  constrained  to  con- 
fess that  the  squirrel  earns  his  dinner. 

"The  plucking  and  stripping  of  a  pine 
cone  is  a  business  he  and  his  family  un- 
derstand perfectly.  He  does  not  prick 
his  fingers,  nor  pitch  his  whiskers,  nor 
gnaw  the  solid  cone  any  more  than  he 
needs  to.  ...  He  holds  in  his 
hands  a  solid  embossed  cone  so  hard  it 
almost  rings  to  the  touch  of  his  teeth. 
He  knows  better  than  to  cut  off  the  top 
and  work  his  way  downward,  or  to  gnaw 
into  the  side  for  three-quarters  of  an 
inch  in  the  face  of  so  many  armed 
[spiny]  shields.  He  whirls  it  bottom 

23 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 


upward  in  a  twinkling,  and  then  pro- 
ceeds to  cut  through  the  thin  and  tender 
bases  of  the  scales,  and  each  stroke  tells, 
laying  bare  at  once  a  couple  of  seeds. 
Thus  he  strips  it  as  easily  as  if  scales 
were  chaff,  and  so  rapidly,  twirling  it  as 
he  advances,  that  you  cannot  tell  how 
he  does  it  till  you  drive  him  off  and  in- 
spect his  finished  work." 

A  yellowish,  brittle-stemmed  mistle- 
toe (Arceuthobium  occidentale  EN- 
GELM)  lives  on  the  Coulter  pine  and 
White  Fir.  I  shall  never  forget  my  first 
experience  with  it.  I  plucked  a  spray  in 
order  to  sketch  it,  and  as  I  did  so,  a  jet  of 
gluey  fluid  hit  me  on  the  eye.  Then 
another  spirt  came  on  the  cheek.  For  a 
moment  I  was  puzzled  to  know  what  it 
meant.  Then  I  discovered  that  the 
shiny,  white  berries  were  discharging 
their  seeds  at  me — not  with  evil  inten- 
tions, however;  it  was  the  mistletoe's 
method  of  seed  dispersal.  The  viscid 
fluid  within  the  berry  and  surrounding 
the  seed  is  under  such  intense  internal 

24 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 


pressure  that  when  the  ripe  berry  is 
jarred  from  its  hold  an  explosion  takes 
place,  shooting  the  seed  with  its  mucil- 
aginous pulp  out  into  the  air.  Records 
are  given  of  seeds  being  thus  shot  to  a 
distance  of  13  feet,  and  wherever  they 
land  they  stick.  Put  a  sticky  seed  on 
your  skin  or  clothes  and  see  how  diffi- 
cult it  is  to  rub  off. 

Birds  feasting  on  these  berries  get 
their  bills  covered  with  the  gummy 
seeds  and  in  trying  to  clean  them  off  by 
wiping  them  on  the  bark  of  trees,  dis- 
tribute the  seeds.  The  viscid  pulp  soon 
hardens  affording  a  protection  to  the 
seed. 


DIGGER  OR  GRAY  PINE 

Pinus  sabiniana*  DOUG. 

Another  nut  pine,  the  Gray  or  Digger 
Pine,  found  commonly  on  the  slopes  of 
the  Tehachapi  Pass  and  northward,  ex- 
tends in  scattered  groups  southward  to 
the  Mt.  Pinos  region  in  Ventura  County 
and  the  northern  portions  of  Los  An- 
geles County.  The  conspicuous  features 
of  the  tree  are,  the  relatively  scanty 
bluish-gray  foliage,  the  large  heavy 
cones  with  their  chestnut-brown  in- 
curved scale-tips,  the  usual  elongated 
V-shaped  fork  and  leaning  trunk.  Com- 
paritively  early  in  the  life  of  the  tree  the 
main  stem-axis  ceases  its  growth  and 
two  lateral  branches  below  begin  to 
grow  out  and  take  its  place,  giving  the 
tree  its  unconventional,  broom-like 
forked  form. 

Says  Jepson:  "It  makes  an  unsatis- 
factory lumber  when  sawn,  on  account 

"Joseph  Sabine,  after  whom  the  tree  was  named  by 
David  Douglas,  was  Secretary  of  the  London  Horticul- 
tural Society. 

26 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

of  its  faculty  for  warping.  The  woods- 
men say  with  humorous  exaggeration, 
'Boards  from  the  mill  stacked  outside  to 
season  will  walk  off  the  lot  over  night/  ' 


3. 


WESTERN   YELLOW   PINE 

1.  Seedling 

2.  Cross-section  of  male  cone  (enlarged) 

3.  Young  female  cone  (enlarged) 

4.  Seed 

5.  Mature  cone 

6.  Leaf  bundle 


WESTERN  YELLOW  PINE 

Pinus  ponderosa  LAWSON. 

BARK — Yellowish-brown  to  russet-red,  broken  up  in  old 
trees  into  large  smooth  or  scaly  plates,  scales  con- 
cave and  easily  peeled.  Younger  trees  with  dark 
red-brown  or  almost  black  bark,  finely  fissured. 

LEAVES — In  3's,  4%  to  11  inches  long,  deep  yellowish 
green,  remaining  on  tree  about  three  years. 

CONES — Russet-brown,  egg-shaped,  2%  to  5  inches 
long,  scales  armed  with  short  prickle,  seeds 
winged.  Cones  mature  in  August  at  end  of  sec- 
ond season. 

This  is  the  most  widely  distributed  of 
any  of  our  California  pines,  in  fact,  no 
tree  in  North  America  can  boast  of  a 
wider  distribution.  From  the  moun- 
tains of  Northern  Mexico  to  Southern 
British  Columbia  it  is  everywhere  at 
home  and  if  we  include  its  variety  P. 
ponderosa  scopulorum  of  the  Rockies 
we  may  say  that  it  occurs  in  every  state 
west  of  the  Great  Plains. 

Speaking  of  this  tree,  Sargent  says : 
"It  surpasses  all  its  race  in  the  majesty 
of  its  splendor  and  vitality."  Old  giants 
often  rival  in  beauty  the  magnificent 
sugar  pines,  their  bizarre  forms  standing 

29 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

out  boldly  and  towering  high  above  the 
silent  sea  of  pines  about  them.  The  spe- 
cific name  ponderosa  was  suggested  by 
David  Douglas  in  allusion  to  its  impos- 
ing stature. 

In  our  mountains  of  Southern  Cali- 
fornia it  is  by  far  the  most  prevalent 
conifer  and  composes  the  great  bulk  of 
our  forest,  forming  magnificent  areas 
of  wooded  country  especially  in  the  San 
Bernardino  and  San  Jacinto  Mountains. 
Though  ordinarily  a  dweller  of  the 
slopes  with  an  elevation  of  from  4000 
to  7000  feet,  on  the  south  side  of  Mount 
San  Jacinto  a  few  trees  have  climbed 
the  slopes  to  an  elevation  of  9800  feet, 
one  of  the  highest  recorded  stations  for 
this  pine.  Grinnell  notes  its  occurrence 
at  9000  feet  near  Sugar  Loaf  Peak  and 
Dry  Lake. 

The  dry  powdered  resin  of  the  yellow 
pines  is  used  as  a  dusting  powder  for 
sores.  Settlers  mix  the  resin  with  corn 
meal  and  apply  it  as  a  poultice  to  pro- 
duce counter-irritation.  ( Schneider. ) 

30 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 


Look  on  the  bark  of  the  yellow  pines 
for  the  ingeniously  made  cupboards  of 
acorns  fashioned  and  filled  with  food  by 
the  California  Woodpecker,  El  Carpin- 
tero,  as  the  Mexicans  love  to  call  him. 
Perhaps  some  day  you  may  hear  and 
watch  him  tinkering  around,  gouging 
out  holes,  or  fitting  acorns  into  them. 
Whole  trees  are  often  covered  with  his 
work  and  tens  of  thousands  of  snuggly- 
fitting  acorns  await  the  day  of  his  winter 
hunger.  Only  the  sweet-tasting  acorns 
are  chosen  and  these  he  stores,  not  so 
much  for  the  grubs  that  may  grow  with- 
in them,  as  for  the  sweet  nut  meats 
which  he  likes  to  eat.  High,  dry  and 
embosomed  in  the  bark  of  the  tree,  the 
Carpenter's  pantry  provides  him  a  din- 
ner when  the  food  of  other  birds  is  hid- 
den in  the  snow.  The  squirrels  are  not 
the  most  honest  creatures  and  the  wood- 
pecker seems  to  know  it.  Were  the 
acorns  stored  otherwise  than  they  are  or 
fitted  in  less  ingeniously  he  knows  their 
fate  at  the  nimble  hands  of  the  squirrel. 

31 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

Mrs.  Eliza  Conner  Houton,  one  of  the 
few  remaining  survivors  of  the  ill-fated 
Donner  party,  tells  me  that,  as  a  little 
child,  she  noticed  that  the  holes  were  al- 
ways bored  at  a  downward  angle  so  that 
it  was  impossible  for  the  squirrels  to  get 
a  straight  pull  on  the  nuts,  the  acorn's 
points  always  turning  up  when  an  at- 
tempt was  made  at  extraction,  thus  lodg- 
ing the  nuts  in  tighter  than  ever.  Ques- 
tion— Does  the  wood-pecker  know  his 
business? 

Particularly  noticeable  for  beauty  is 
the  trunk  of  the  Ponderosa  with  its 
great  plates  of  salmon-red  bark.  These 
noble,  smooth,  richly-hued  shafts  stand 
like  colonnades  and  pillars  in  the  great 
temple  of  the  out-of-doors.  Happy  and 
fortunate  is  that  man  who  worships  in 
quietness  in  this  cathedral  of  God's  de- 
sign with  its  sun-splashed  and  carpeted 
aisles  of  rare  scented  needles. 

Would  you  know  peace,  would  you 
learn  gentleness,  do  you  long  for  rest? 
It  is  here  for  you  in  these  quiet  woods. 

32 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 


The  chicadees  will  sing  you  their  dear 
little  song,  and  juncos  and  towhees, 
scarce  knowing  the  sight  of  man,  will 
hop  down  by  your  side  and  peaceably 
give  you  their  merry  chirp  as  they  hunt 
among  the  pine  needles  for  their  morn- 
ing meal.  Gold  and  lavender  flowers, 
bordering  the  meadows,  will  nod  to  you 
as  they  sway  in  balmy  mountain  breezes 
and  speak  of  God's  love  and  gracious- 
ness.  They  will  not  chide  you  for  your 
short-coming;  they  know  not  how  to 
give  looks  of  reproach;  they  can  only 
point  to  the  way  of  gladness  of  heart. 


JEFFREY  PINE 

Pinus  ponderosa  var.  jeffreyi  VASEY. 

BARK — Redder  than  in  Ponderosa,  running  almost  into 
black  and  broken  into  very  much  smaller  plates 
and  ridges. 

LEAVES — 5  to  9%  inches  long,  hanging  on  the  tre« 
from  5  to  8  years;  appearance  similar  to  Pon- 
derosa. 

CONE — Similar  to  Ponderosa,  except  that  they  are  much 
larger  (5  to  11  inches  long),  and  somewhat 
rounder  and  denser. 

This  is  but  a  variety  of  the  Pinus  pon- 
derosa and  hence  has  many  characteris- 
tics of  the  latter  tree.  There  is  such  a 
gradual  gradation  from  the  pure  Pon- 
derosa type  to  the  pure  Jeffrey  variety 
that  often  it  is  difficult  to  give  a  rigid 
classification  to  many  intermediate 
trees.  The  best  field  marks  are  the  fine- 
ly cut  wine  color  bark  streaked  with 
black  (hence  sometimes  called  Black 
Pine) ,  and  the  larger  cones.  Generally 
the  pure  stands  of  Jeffreys  are  found 
at  higher  elevations  than  the  Ponder- 
osas.  There  are  those  who  claim  they 
can  distinguish  these  trees  by  tasting  the 
sap  in  the  needles. 

34 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 


Did  you  ever  stop  to  think  of  the 
forces  at  work  in  the  trunk  and  leaves 
of  one  of  these  forest  monarchs:  what 
energies  are  required  to  pump  the  sap  to 
the  pinnacles  of  the  high  crowns,  what 
chemical  agencies  are  ever  at  work  in 
the  manufacture  of  food,  what  marvel- 
ous adaptations  are  present  for  the  con- 
servation of  moisture?  The  internal 
pressure  in  cells  of  trees  is  so  intense  as 
to  seem  almost  incredible.  Weiler,  when 
experimenting  with  Scotch  fir,  found 
that  in  the  young  wood  cells  the  pres- 
sure was  240  pounds  to  the  square  inch. 
Dixon  found  in  the  cells  of  certain 
leaves  a  pressure  of  from  150  to  450 
pounds  to  the  square  inch.  As  said  by 
G.  Scott  Elliot,  "no  locomotive  engine 
has  cylinders  strong  enough  to  resist 
such  internal  pressure  as  this." 

Plants  have  satisfactorily  solved  a 
problem  in  support  the  solution  of 
which  engineers  have  never  found.  A 
chimney  50  feet  high  must  have  a  diam- 
eter at  base  of  at  least  three  feet,  but  a 

35 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

tree  with  the  same  diameter  will  often 
run  upwards  over  a  hundred  and  fifty 
feet,  and  the  tree  has  leaves  and 
branches  to  support  besides  its  own 
trunk.  It  is  said  that  a  rye  plant  will 
support  a  stem  that  is  500  times  its  di- 
ameter. 

There  is  a  beetle,  a  portion  of  whose 
life  history  is  intimately  bound  up  with 
the  dying  days  of  many  of  the  forest 
trees.  This  is  the  big  Pine  Borer, 
Prionus  calif ornicus,  who  is  responsible 
for  the  big  holes  and  tunnels  in  the  dead 
and  fallen  logs  of  the  pines  and  firs.  The 
adult  forms  are  familiar  sights  at  night 
about  mountain  resorts.  They  fly  into 
open  doors  and  windows,  annoucing 
their  arrival  by  a  great  clattering  of 
wings.  The  curious  who  try  to  pick 
them  up  find  that  the  big,  brown-bodied, 
long-horned  creatures  are  possessed  of 
powerful,  vicious,  incurved  mandibles 
capable  of  inflicting  painful  wounds. 
The  rasping  noise  made  when  they  are 
disturbed  is  made  by  rubbing  the  tibial 

36 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

portion  of  the  second  pair  of  legs  against 
the  outer  edge  of  the  wing  covers.  Dur- 
ing the  late  summer  the  female  lays,  by 
my  actual  count,  from  200  to  250 
eggs,  each  about  as  large  as  a  small,  nar- 
row, rice  kernel,  in  the  crevices  of  the 
bark  of  some  dying  tree.  These  hatch 
into  small  larvae  with  powerful  sickle- 
shaped  jaws  capable  of  boring  through 
the  wood  like  an  auger.  Often  if  you  will 
put  your  ear  up  to  the  dying  tree  you 
can  hear  the  crunching  and  grinding  of 
the  jaws.  The  larvae  grow  larger  and 
larger  eating  the  wood  as  they  go,  leav- 
ing the  tunnels  behind  them  packed 
with  woody  chips.  At  a  certain  stage  of 
growth  a  cell  is  partitioned  off  with 
chips  just  beneath  the  bark  and  there 
the  borers  lie  dormant  for  many  months 
while  those  mysterious  changes  take 
place  which  transform  the  soft-bodied 
grubs  into  mature  adults. 


37 


KNOB-CONE  PINE 
Cone  and  leaf  bundle   (natural  size) 


KNOB-CONE  PINE 

Pinus  attenuata  LEMMON. 

BARK — Thin,    dull    brown    and     slightly   fissured   and 

ridged,  ridges  with  large  loose  scales. 
LEAVES— In  3's,  slender  and  often  twisted,  3  to  5  inches 

long,  yellowish-  or  grayish-green,  sparse,  persisting 

on  stem  4  to  5  years. 
CONE — Buff  colored,  strongly  flexed  backwards,  3  to  6 

inches   long. 

The  only  known  natural  occurrence 
of  this  pine  in  Southern  California  is  on 
the  arid  southern  face  of  the  San  Ber- 
nardino Mountains  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
great  R  cleared  from  the  chaparral  by 
the  students  of  the  University  of  Red- 
lands,  and  near  City  Creek.  The  trees 
are  dwarfish,  ranging  in  height  from  5 
to  1 5  feet,  with  long  sweeping  branches 
curving  outward  from  the  main  stem. 
The  few  trees  found  on  the  San  Gabriel 
Mountains  back  of  Pasadena  were 
planted  by  the  late  T.  P.  Lukens  as  an 
experiment  in  reforestation.  A  most  im- 
portant botanical  discovery  was  made 
by  excavators  at  work  in  the  La  Brea 
pits  when  they  found  cones  of  the  Knob- 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

cone  pine  embedded  in  the  tar  with  pre- 
historic elephants,  saber-toothed  tigers 
and  giant  sloths,  showing  that  this  tree, 
in  prehistoric  times,  grew  much  nearer 
the  coast. 

When  the  tree  reaches  an  age  of  seven 
or  eight  years  it  begins  to  bear  cones. 
These  hang  in  close  groups  rigidly  at- 
tached to  the  main  stem  and  after  ma- 
ture adhere  indefinitely.  Often  as  the 
tree  increases  in  size  these  persistent, 
narrow-based  cones  become  imbedded  in 
the  bark.  In  the  office  of  the  Forest 
Supervisor,  Los  Angeles,  is  a  branch  of  a 
tree  less  than  nine  inches  long  with  28 
partially  buried  cones  upon  it.  Some 
trees,  according  to  Sudworth,  show  that 
they  have  retained  their  cones  nearly 
fifty  years.  The  seeds  of  these,  on  being 
opened,  were  found  to  be  still  alive, 
showing  a  remarkable  vitality  over  the 
deciduous-coned  pines  whose  seeds  sel- 
dom retain  their  power  of  germination 
more  than  two  seasons.  The  cones  only 
open  when  the  tree  dies  a  natural  death 

40 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

or  is  fire-killed.  The  seeds  held  in  store 
during  the  whole  life-period  of  the  tree 
are  then  lavishly  sown  and  an  abundant 
growth  of  seedlings  comes  up.  Such  is 
Nature's  forethought  in  preserving  the 
forest  cover. 


FOUR-LEAF  OR  PARRY  PINE 
Cone,  leaf  bundle  and  nut 


FOUR-LEAF  OR  PARRY  PINE 

Pinus  quadrifoUa  SUDWORTH. 

BARK — Thin,  shallowly  fissured  into  flat  ridges,  scales 

few  or  none,  dark  reddish-brown. 
LEAVES — In  fascicles   of  4,  sometimes  3  to  5,  1%  to 

1%  inches  long,  pale  green,  somewhat  scattered  on 

the  twigs,  persisting  from  3  to  5  years. 
CONE — Brown  and  shining,  1%  to  2  inches  long,  scales 

without  spines. 

Probably  this  is  the  least  frequently 
seen  and  known  of  all  our  pines;  first, 
because  it  is  so  often  confused  with  the 
single-leaf  pinyon  which  it  in  many 
ways  so  closely  resembles ;  and  second, 
because  of  the  remoteness  of  the  locali- 
ties where  it  grows.  The  northern  limitof 
this  hermit  tree  is  Cahuilla  Valley  and 
the  very  southernmost  portions  of  the 
San  Jacinto  Mountains,  where  a  single 
tree  stands  close  to  the  road  on  the  Nig- 
ger Jim  Grade  between  Kenworthy  and 
Cahuilla.  It  also  occurs  sparingly  in 
desolate  Coyote  Canyon,  on  the  bleak 
sides  of  Toro  Mountain  in  the  Santa 
Rosa  Range,  and  on  south  into  Lower 
California. 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 


As  suggested  by  Mr.  J.  G.  Lemmon, 
this  and  the  other  nut  pines  represent 
the  "provident,  liberal  element"  in  the 
pine  family.  They  bend  their  bountiful 
stores  of  nuts  on  low-hanging  branches 
and  grow  where  no  other  food  tree  could 
exist.  The  scales  of  the  cones  are  un- 
armed with  prickles  and  bear  the  larg- 
est, most  nutritious  and  delicious  seeds 
of  any  of  the  pines. 


LIMBER  PINE 

Pinus  flexilis  JAMES. 

BARK — Thin,  narrowly  fissured  into  dark  brown  blocks, 
scales  when  falling  expose  a  reddish  inner  layer; 
on  younger  stems  it  is  thinner  and  almost  white. 

LEAVES— In    5's,    dark    green,    stout    and   stiff,   sharp- 

rinted,   crowded  at  ends   of  branches,  persisting 
to  8  years. 

CONE — Long,  oval,  3  to  5  inches  long,  thickened  ends 
of  scales  terminating  in  a  stout,  incurved  tip, 
wing  of  seed  very  narrow. 

In  companionship  with  the  Murray 
Pine,  Pinus  flexilis  climbs  the  dry, 
rocky  and  exposed  slopes  of  the  higher 
ranges.*  In  the  rocky,  talus-cluttered 
gulches  near  the  summits  of  San  Gor- 
gonio  and  San  Jacinto  Peaks,  where 
some  protection  is  offered  from  the  high 
winds,  the  trees  grow  quite  straight  and 
tall.  But  the  most  interesting  and  beau- 
tiful forms  are  those  of  the  exposed 
ridges,  where  gnarled,  twisted  and  pros- 

*It  seems  probable  that  the  Limber  pine  whose  home 
is  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  has  entered  Southern  Cali- 
fornia by  way  of  the  desert  ranges,  the  highest  peaks 
of  which  served  as  stepping  stones  between  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  the  higher  ranges  of  middle  and 
Southern  California. — HALL.  Found  also  on  Santa 
Rosa  Peak,  25  miles  southeast  of  San  Jacinto  Peak. 

45 


LIMBER  PINE 
Leaf  bundle,  cone  and  single  scale  with  nuts  exposed 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

trate  their  thick  and  ancient  trunks  seek 
shelter  from  the  fury  of  the  winds.  On 
the  leeward  side  beneath  the  low,  storm- 
beaten,  creeping  trunks  are  often  found 
delightful  low  nooks  just  about  large 
enough  for  a  cozy  bed.  Since  a  soft 
bed  of  needles  is  generally  there,  too, 
these  hospitable  shelters  are  always 
welcomed  by  the  traveller  when  spend- 
ing the  night  on  the  high  wind-swept 
peaks. 

Familiar  to  the  frequenter  of  the  high 
mountain  trails  which  lead  among  these 
forests  is  the  harsh,  raucous  and  dis- 
cordant cry  of  the  Clarke  Nut-cracker. 
No  matter  how  often  you  enter  these 
domains  you  always  find  this  saucy  bird 
ready  to  entertain  you.  On  the  edge  of 
the  Tamarack  forest  he  meets  you,  to 
escort  you  through  his  haunts.  Ever  on 
the  move  he  keeps  just  ahead  at  a  safe 
distance,  alighting  invariably  in  some 
dry  tree  where  he  can  watch  you.  If 
you  stop  for  a  few  minutes  he  may  fly 
to  some  green,  cone-laden  tree  and  still 

47 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

on  the  watch  begin  to  feed  on  the  seed 
of  the  pines.  "These  noisy  seed-hunt- 
ers/' says  Ridgeway,  "use  their  formid- 
able claws  to  enable  them  to  hang  onto 
the  pine-cones  while  they  are  extract- 
ing the  seed  which  they  are  obliged  to 
get  out  from  under  scaly  coverings.  For 
this  nature  has  given  them  feet  and 
claws  that  serve  the  purpose  of  hands, 
and  a  powerful  bill  like  a  small  crow- 
bar. The  cone  must  be  steadied  when 
they  pry  it  open,  or  it  would  snap  and 
fall.  One  foot  clasps  it,  and  the  power- 
ful claws  hold  it  firmly.  The  other  foot, 
encircling  a  branch,  supports  the  bird  in 
every  position,  the  long  grasping  claws 
being  equal  to  any  emergency.  The 
cone  is  thus  fixed  and  the  seeds  are 
forced  out  from  under  the  scales." 


48 


THE  SUGAR  PINE 

Pinus  lambertiana  DOUGL. 

BARK — Brown  or  reddish-brown  often  with  a  purple 
tinge,  fissured  into  long  finely  broken  plates. 
Foliage  of  young  trees,  smooth  and  grayish. 

LEAVES — 5  in  cluster,  dark  green,  sharp  pointed,  and 
from  3  to  4  inches  long. 

CONE — Large,  from  12  to  20  inches  long,  pendulous, 
light  brown  when  mature,  very  resinous.  Seeds 
shed  in  autumn  of  second  season.  The  cone  per- 
sists to  the  third  season — scales  without  knobs  or 
prickles. 

Ever  since  its  discovery  by  David 
Douglas,  writers  have  vied  with  each 
other  in  their  attempt  to  adequately  de- 
scribe the  majestic  sugar  pine.  It  is  the 
forest's  choicest  child  upon  whom  she 
has  lavished  consummate  grace  of 
branch,  leaf  and  cone.  The  upper 
branches  are  widely  spreading  and 
terminate  in  tapering  upturned  points, 
except  when  weighted  with  clusters  of 
pendent  cones.  The  lower  branches  are 
inclined  to  droop  like  those  of  the  Nor- 
way spruce — the  whole  giving  the  tree 
a  most  picturesque  aspect.  The  fine 
fingered  needles  when  caressed  by 

49 


SUGAR  PINE 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

mountain  breezes  produce  forest  melo- 
dies unapproachable  in  tone  sweetness. 
The  cone  of  no  other  conifer  is  so  beau- 
tiful in  its  tapering  symmetry. 

Have  you  ever  noticed  at  the  base  of  a 
bundle  of  pine  needles,  the  sheath  of 
paper-like  wrappings  which  appear  a 
great  deal  like  many  little  gray  threads 
wound  about  the  leaves  to  hold  them  in 
a  bundle?  These  little  wrappings  are 
the  scales  of  the  buds  from  which  the 
leaf  bundle  springs.  When  the  needles 
are  young,  the  bundle,  enclosed  in  its 
sheath  of  scales,  looks  like  a  pin  feather. 
All  the  soft  pines,  of  which  the  sugar 
pine  is  an  example,  shed  these  bud 
sheaths  early,  while  the  pitch  pines  re- 
tain them  so  that  they  fall  with  the  leaf 
bundles. 

Every  bundle  of  pine  needles  is  really 
a  very  short  branch  with  the  leaves  set 
so  closely  together  that  they  form  a 
cluster.  At  the  very  base  of  the  bundle, 
beneath  it,  and  on  the  main  stem  of  the 
new  branches  of  spring  are  the  primary 

51 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 


or  proper  leaves  of  the  shoot,  which  look 
not  at  all  like  foliage,  but  rather  like 
delicate  scales.  These  soon  fall  away. 
Another  kind  of  leaf  of  pines  is  the  sim- 
ple juvenile  leaf  of  the  sapling.  Scien- 
tifically speaking  even  the  scales  of  the 
cones  are  leaves,  modified  for  the  spe- 
cial work  of  seed  production.  So  then, 
we  may  say  that  a  pine  tree  has  four 
kinds  of  leaves — juvenile,  primary,  foli- 
age and  sporophyll. 


THE  BIG  CONE  SPRUCE 

Pseudotsuga  macrocarpa  TORR. 

This  is  ordinarily  the  first  cone  bear- 
ing tree  you  find  when  climbing  the 
mountain  canyons.  It  is  peculiar  to 
Southern  California,  being  found  no- 
where north  of  Santa  Barbara  County. 
While  it  particularly  seeks  the  shades  of 
the  deep  canyons,  where  it  huddles  close 
to  the  streams  and  grows  very  straight 
and  tall,  it  also  ventures  out  in  places 
high  up  on  the  steep  north  slopes  be- 
tween the  chaparral  and  yellow  pine  belt 
where  it  forms  lone  and  picturesque 
groups. 

Its  worst  enemies  are  the  frequent 
fires  which  sweep  through  the  chapar- 
ral. It  is  a  slow  seeder  and  once  fire- 
destroyed,  it  is  a  long  time  before  the 
area  is  reforested.  One  of  the  saddest 
sights  the  tree  lover  meets  as  he  ascends 
the  lower  slopes  and  canyons  are  the 
blackened  forms  of  the  spruces  silhou- 

53 


BIG-CONE  SPRUCE 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 


etted  against   the   skies,   marking  the 
devastation  of  recent  fires. 

A  noticeable  feature  of  the  cones  and 
one  which  makes  this  tree  easily  distin- 
guishable from  the  other  conifers,  is  the 
presence  of  the  rather  thick  fringe-like 
bracts  protruding  beyond  the  scales.  The 
cones  mature  the  first  year  but  remain 
hanging  on  the  trees  after  the  seeds  have 
fallen  out.  Pseudotsuga  is  derived  from 
the  Greek  and  means  false  Hemlock; 
macrocarpa  means  large  fruit. 


WHITE  FIR 

Showing  branch  and  green  cone 


WHITE  FIR  ' 

Abies  concolor  PARRY. 

Large  trees  with  old  bark,  rough,  gray 
and  furrowed,  and  stained  with  rich  an- 
cient browns — how  goodly  is  their  com- 
pany! They  are  the  lovable  old  patri- 
archs who  have  words  of  wood  wisdom 
and  of  history  for  all  who  will  to  know 
the  story  of  their  lives.  The  days  of 
their  sojourn  here  have  been  many. 
Record  has  been  kept  by  them  in  their 
wounds  and  scars  of  the  struggles  with 
the  furor  of  storms  through  a  hundred 
seasons;  in  the  rings  of  their  trunks  is 
found  the  story  of  wet  season  and 
drought;  they  know  the  ways  of  their 
friends,  the  birds,  and  offer  from  gener- 
ation to  generation  without  restrictions, 
homes  to  the  feathered  flocks. 

Helped  by  the  squirrels,  the  winds 
and  birds,  the  seeds  from  season  to  sea- 
son have  been  sown,  and  now  about  their 
borders  have  sprung  up  little  groups 
of  dainty  saplings  and  older  tree  chil- 

57 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

dren  to  continue  the  beneficent  work  of 
conserving  the  forest  cover.  The  young- 
est of  these  are  fresh  with  the  newness 
of  life,  symmetrical,  prim  and  beautiful 
in  their  dress  of  silver,  bluish-green 
foliage,  but  the  older  ones  after  reach- 
ing the  half-century  mark  begin  to  lack 
this  convention  of  form  and  are  becom- 
ing unsymmetrical  and  shaggy  like  their 
hoary  forebears. 

Some  of  the  prettiest  of  the  firs  are 
those  with  spike  tops.  Such  trees  have 
either  been  lightning  struck,  injured  by 
a  Tussock  moth,  or  have  nourished  a 
mistletoe  which  has  circled  and  killed 
the  branches.  I  have  often  noticed  how 
the  birds  enjoy  these  naked  spired 
branches  as  look-outs.  I  remember  an 
old  hawk  who  spent  about  half  his  time 
in  such  a  spike-topped  fir. 

Trees  growing  in  full  light  have 
heavy,  silver-green,  plumy  branches 
while  those  deep  set  in  the  forest  shade 
have  the  leaves  arranged  sparsely  in 
thin  flat  sprays  much  like  the  redwoods. 

58 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 


Often  so  great  is  this  difference,  caused 
by  environment,  that  the  unwary  think 
they  have  found  two  different  trees.  If 
you  will  closely  examine  the  leaves  of 
the  fir  you  will  notice  that  they  are 
striped  beneath  with  two  long  stripes  of 
white  breathing  pores,  giving  the  foliage 
a  "glistening  sheen  of  silver" — hence 
the  oft-given  name — SILVER  FIR. 

The  cones  of  the  firs  are  never  found 
by  looking  for  them  on  the  ground.  Un- 
like the  pine  cones  they  are  borne  erect 
near  the  top  of  the  tree.  When  ripe  each 
of  the  paper-like  scales  falls  away  sep- 
arately, leaving  the  thin,  pencil-like 
axes  of  the  cones  standing  like  candles 
on  a  Christmas  tree. 


INCENSE  CEDAR 

Showing  cones  and  leaf  arrangement.     To  the  right  is 
shown  one  of  the  mistletoes  growing  on  the  Coulter  Pine 


INCENSE  CEDAR 

Libocedrus  decurrens  TORR. 

This  beautiful  conifer,  discovered  by 
Fremont  in  1846  on  the  upper  waters  of 
the  Sacramento  River,  has  received  the 
name  of  Incense  Cedar  because  of  the 
aromatic  resin  which  perfumes  its  bark 
and  leaves.  The  leaves  are  short,  flat 
scales  arranged  in  broad  sprays  of  in- 
tensely rich  green.  They  are  in  whorls 
of  four  but  so  closely  adherent  to  the 
stem  that  they  are  not  easily  recognized 
as  true  leaves.  Only  the  sharp  ends  of 
the  outer  leaves  are  free.  The  inner 
ones  are  much  compressed  and  almost 
completely  covered  by  the  outer  lateral 
leaves  so  that  the  stem  appears  jointed. 
The  specific  name  decurrens  refers  to 
the  fact  that  the  leaves  are  prolonged  on 
the  stem  beneath  the  point  of  their  ap- 
parent insertion. 

The  bark  of  the  older  trees  is  of  a  rich 
cinnamon-red  color,  thin  and  scaly,  and 

61 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

when  scaled  comes  off  in  long  pithy 
shreds.  It  was  often  used  by  the  In- 
dians in  the  construction  of  houses  and 
for  tepees  in  which  they  sought  shelter 
while  gathering  the  year's  acorn  crops 
in  late  October  and  early  November. 
The  remains  of  several  of  these  tepees 
may  yet  be  seen  in  the  Palomar  Moun- 
tains of  San  Diego  County. 

Though  ordinarily  unnoticed  the  In- 
cense cedar  has  its  crop  of  cones  just 
like  the  pines,  though  the  cone  is  very 
much  smaller,  consisting  of  but  six 
scales.  Only  the  two  largest  of  these 
bear  seeds  and  are  noticeable.  The  cones 
are  of  most  graceful  outline  and  present 
a  most  artistic  effect  when  seen  in  clus- 
ter. If  you  do  not  find  them  on  every 
tree  do  not  be  surprised.  Remember 
that  these  mountain  trees  have  their  "off 
years"  like  fruit  trees  in  the  valleys, 
when  the  frosts  come  just  at  blossoming 
time  and  kill  the  promised  fruit.  It  may 
be  that  you  will  find  few  cones  or  none 
at  all  on  the  conifers  of  certain  localities 

62 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

for  a  number  of  years  and  then  after 
that  will  come  a  year  or  years  of  abun- 
dance when  every  branch  is  hanging  low 
under  its  weight  of  pendent  cones. 

The  flowers  appear  late  in  January — 
very  early  in  the  season  for  a  tree  of 
such  altitudes.  Male  and  female  are 
borne  on  the  same  branch,  but  on  differ- 
ent twigs  or  on  different  trees.  Many 
people  do  not  even  suspect  that  a  pine 
tree  or  a  cedar  has  a  blossom,  but  once 
they  see  the  male  blossoms  of  the  cedar, 
yellow  with  their  loads  of  pollen  and  so 
thick  that  the  tree  is  one  mass  of  gold, 
they  will  never  again  doubt  their  exist- 
ence. It  may  here  be  remarked  that  it 
is  always  the  female  blossom  which  de- 
velops into  the  cone. 

The  Incense  cedar  requires  more 
moisture  than  the  Yellow  pine  and  is 
therefore  restricted  to  the  large  valleys 
and  vicinity  of  streams.  It  can  be 
propagated  from  cuttings  taken  from  the 
branches  of  one  year's  growth,  and  is 
kindly  adaptable  to  home  gardens. 

63 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 


In  cutting  into  old  or  decaying  cedar, 
oblong  pockets  filled  with  a  brown  char- 
coal-like mass  are  often  seen.  This  is 
the  work  of  a  fungus  (Polyporus  am- 
arus)  whose  mycelial  threads  penetrate 
everywhere  through  the  heartwood, 
weakening  the  tree  and  destroying  its 
value.  The  fruiting  bodies,  produced 
annually,  issue  from  knot  holes  and  are 
greedily  devoured  by  insects  and  squir- 
rels who  relish  the  soft,  mushy,  knob- 
shaped  masses  of  spores. 

The  Incense  cedar  is  the  host  of  a  cer- 
tain tree  thief,  a  leafless  mistletoe 
(Phoradendron  juniperus  librocedri), 
the  luxuriant  growths  of  which  are  often 
conspicuous  on  older  trees.  Being  a 
light-seeker  this  mistletoe  is  most  often 
found  high  in  the  tree.  It  is  long-lived 
and  has  been  known  to  live  more  than 
220  years.  Longitudinal  rows  of  small 
holes  in  the  wood  are  caused  by  wood- 
peckers or  by  the  roots  of  the  Phora- 
dendron. 


WESTERN  JUNIPER 

Junipenis  occidentalis  HOOK. 

The  dominant  notes  of  the  burly, 
scant-foliaged  juniper  are  its  sturdiness, 
dignity  and  repose.  The  thick-set, 
stocky  trunks  covered  by  the  bright,  cin- 
namon-red bark  appear  immobile  as 
stone.  "They  are  never,"  says  John 
Muir,  "blown  down  so  long  as  they  con- 
tinue in  health.  Their  stiff,  crooked 
roots  grip  the  storm-beaten  ledges  like 
eagle  claws,  while  their  lithe,  cord-like 
branches  bend  round  compliantly,  offer- 
ing but  slight  holds  for  winds,  however 
violent." 

The  Western  Juniper  thrives  best  at 
high  elevations  and  is  found  in  an  al- 
most pure  forest  of  considerable  extent 
to  the  north  of  Bear  Lake  and  into  Hoi- 
comb  Valley.  It  is  common  around  the 
lake  itself,  also  on  Gold  Mountain  and 
Sugar  Loaf  Peak.  A  few  trees  occur 
locally  on  Mount  San  Antonio. 

65 


MOUNTAIN  JUNIPER 

1.  End  of  stem 

2.  Female  blossom  (x) 

3.  Fruit  cut  to  show  seeds 

4.  Male  blossom  (x) 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

The  fruit,  in  appearance  like  a  berry, 
is  a  true  cone.  Unlike  the  cones  of  the 
other  conifers  the  few  cone  scales  of  the 
junipers  are  fleshy  and  juicy  and  ripen 
at  the  end  of  the  second  season  into  a 
sweetish,  blue-black  fruit,  containing 
two  or  three  seeds.  These  globose 
"berries"  are  gathered  and  eaten  by  the 
Indians.  Birds  and  wild  animals  also 
relish  them. 

The  Indians  used  the  pitch  of  the 
juniper  to  fasten  feathers  to  arrow 
shafts  and  rubbed  it  into  the  shafts  to 
make  them  stronger  and  elastic  (U.  S. 
Disp.). 


67 


SALIX 
LASIOLEPIS 
WHITE  WILLOW 


THE   COTTONWOODS  AND  WILLOWS 

1.  Narrow-leaved  cottonwood 

2.  Fremont  cottonwood 

3.  Black  cottonwood 

4.  Quaking  Aspen 


COTTONWOODS  AND  ASPENS 

The  Cottonwoods  and  Aspens  are  all 
cheerful,  sun-loving  trees  found  in 
the  vicinity  of  streams  or  out-croppings 
of  dampness.  Their  ovate  or  deltoid 
leaves,  fingered  and  carressed  by  warm, 
ascending  breezes,  and  splashed  with 
sunshine,  continually  flash  greetings  to 
us.  Like  pendent,  silver  spangles,  they 
are  ever  in  motion,  exchanging  con- 
fidences among  themselves  or  clapping 
hands  and  clattering  loudly  as  their  sur- 
faces strike  more  harshly  under  the  in- 
fluence of  stronger  wind  gusts. 

The  cottonwood,  found  in  the  open 
valleys  along  the  San  Luis  Rey,  San 
Jacinto  and  Mohave  rivers,  with  bright, 
green,  triangular,  yellowish-green 
leaves,  whitish,  much  furrowed  bark, 
wide-spreading  branches  and  broad 
crowns,  is  the  Fremont  Cottonwood 
(Populus  fremontii) .  It  ascends  some 
distance  along  the  mountain  streams, 
especially  on  the  desert  slopes,  where 

69 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

it  endures  with  remarkable  fortitude 
the  hot  summer  days.  How  refreshing 
the  bright,  green  groves  of  cottonwoods 
must  have  been  to  the  early  western 
travellers  as  they  approached  the  moun- 
tains after  their  long  journey  over  the 
parched  deserts! 

With  the  latter  and  ascending  farther 
up  the  mountain  streams  is  the  Black 
Cottonwood  (Populus  trichocarpa)  .* 
It  is  a  tree  of  more  regular  form  with 
many  ascending  branches  and  broad 
crown.  The  lilac-like  leaves  are  dark 
green  and  shining  above  but  whitish  be- 
neath. It  is  often  called  Balm  or  Bal- 
sam because  of  the  fragrant  gummy 
buds  which,  especially  in  spring,  fill  the 

*Grinnell  in  his  Biota  of  the  San  Bernardino  Moun- 
tains records  the  occurrence  of  a  cottonwood  in  Fish 
Creek  Canyon  from  7200  to  8000  feet  altitude,  which  is 
a  variety  of  the  P.  trichocarpa.  "The  leaves  were  very 
much  larger  and  fewer  in  number,  and  there  was  a  far 
greater  amount  of  balsam  in  the  winter  buds,  so  that 
the  unfolding  leaves  were  extremely  sticky  with  it.  The 
air  in  the  vicinity  was  strongly  charged  with  the  char- 
acteristic odor  far  more  than  with  trichocarpa.  The 
trunk  was  larger  in  proportion  to  the  height  of  the 
tree,  smooth  barked,  and  mostly  green."  A  narrow-leaf 
variety  (P.  trichocarpa  VAR.  ingrata)  is  found  in  the 
upper  Santa  Ana  Canyon  at  the  mouth  of  Nork  Fork. 

70 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 


air  with  odorous  sweetness.  "The  so- 
called  'bee  glue/  with  which  honey  bees 
fasten  their  honeycombs  in  hives  or  in 
the  hollows  of  trees,  is  gathered  by  bees 
from  the  buds  of  the  cottonwoods. 
When  hard  it  is  very  strong/'— SUDWORTH. 
The  Quaking  Aspen  (Populus  irem- 
uloides),  so  familiar  along  Sierran 
streams,  is  found  in  but  one  place  in 
Southern  California,  and  this  at  Fish 
Creek,  north  of  San  Gorgonio  Peak  at 
7000  to  7600  feet  altitude.  The  little 
groups  of  dainty  trees  with  roots  plant- 
ed along  the  waters  of  the  vivacious, 
melodied  mountain  stream  are  a  pretty 
sight  to  behold.  It  is  well  worth  a  spe- 
cial trip  to  see  them. 

Small  groves  of  the  narrow-leaved 
cottonwood  (Populus  angustifolia)  oc- 
cur along  the  Upper  Santa  Ana  from 
6100  feet  up  nearly  to  Big  Meadows. 
They  are  mostly  undersized  trees. 


71 


THE  YELLOW  WILLOW 

Salix*  lasiandra  BENTH. 

Along  the  upper  Santa  Ana  river, 
this  willow  grows  to  a  large  tree.  It  is 
not  listed  by  Hall  among  the  willows  of 
the  San  Jacinto  Mountains.  It  is  some- 
times called  Black  willow  on  account  of 
the  color  of  its  bark.  "The  leaves  deep 
yellow-green  at  maturity  and  about  4'J4 
to  5  inches  long,  are  shiny  on  their  up- 
per surface,  whitish  beneath,  the  large 
mid-ribs  reddish  yellow."  — SUDWORTH. 


*  SALIX — From  Salio,  L.  to  leap  or  spring — from 
quickness  of  its  growth. 

Certain  other  willows  like  Salix  laevigata  BEBB,  and 
Salix  lasiolepis  BENTH,  and  their  varieties  which  are 
found  along  streams  or  around  cienagas  in  the  higher 
mountains,  occasionally  attain  the  proportions  of  trees, 
especially  in  favorable  locations,  but  inasmuch  as  their 
exact  identification  is  often  very  difficult  and  doubtful 
even  under  the  critical  study  of  experts,  it  has  been 
deemed  inexpedient  to  deal  with  them  here.  Those 
who  desire  to  study  the  willows  further  will  do  well 
to  consult  Sargent's  monumental  work  entitled,  "THE 
SILVA  OF  NORTH  AMERICA." 

72 


WHITE  ALDER 

Alnus  rhombifolia  NUTT. 

Almost  all  the  lower  mountain 
streams  are  fringed  with  alders.  They 
huddle  so  closely  along  the  water  bor- 
ders that  when  storm  freshets  come 
they  find  themselves  almost  knee-deep 
in  water  and  if  the  flood  waters  are  too 
high  and  swift  many  of  the  less  deeply 
rooted  lose  their  footholds  and  are  then 
carried  by  the  torrents  ruthlessly  down 
stream.  Wind  storms,  too,  play  havoc 
with  their  tall,  slender  trunks,  and  too 
often  they  fall  like  tall  grass  before  the 
uproarious  blasts,  leaving  the  stream 
beds  cluttered  and  choked  with  pros- 
trate forms. 

The  alders  are  of  great  value  as  a 
stream  cover  since  they  appreciably  re- 
duce the  amount  of  evaporation.  Being 
found  only  on  living  streams  that  are 
permanent,  they  are  reliable  signs  to  the 
traveller  of  the  presence  of  water.  The 
Indians  used  a  decoction  of  the  astrin- 

73 


WHITE  ALDER 

1.  Female  "cone,"  seeds  discharged 

2.  Female  "cones" 

3.  Male  aments 

4.  5.  Male  blossom  (enlarged,  top  and  side  view) 
6.  Female  blossom  (enlarged) 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 


gent  bark  to  produce  vomiting  and  to 
check  hemorrhage  of  the  lungs. 

About  the  bases  of  the  alders  and  up 
in  the  oaks  and  willows  you  will  find 
the  conspicuous  stick  houses  of  the 
Mohave  wood  rats  (Neotoma  fusdpes 
mohavensis) .  They  consist  of  dead  and 
brittle  sticks  put  together  into  steep 
stacks.  Perhaps  if  you  will  poke  into 
them  gently  with  a  stick  the  dainty 
brown-footed  creatures  will  run  out  of 
their  hiding  and  show  you  what  clever 
tree  sealers  they  are. 

Sharing  these  nests  of  the  wood  rats 
are  curious  little  beetles  found  nowhere 
else  in  the  world.  They  are  probably 
welcome  guests  since  they  live  on  the 
refuse  of  the  nest.  They  are  worthy  of 
further  study. 

Often  on  the  trunks  of  alders,  wil- 
lows and  pine,  and  fir  saplings  are  found 
rectangular,  up  and  down  incisions  with 
narrow  strips  of  bark  between.  These  are 
made  by  the  Sierra  Sap-suckers.  From 
the  lower  ends  of  the  newly-made 

75 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

grooves  the  birds  drink  the  oozing  sap, 
taking  it  up  with  their  short,  brushy- 
tipped  tongues.  They  will  work  on  a 
single  clump  of  willows  for  two  or  three 
years,  leaving  only  when  the  group  is 
exhausted  and  dead. 


THE  OAKS 

There  are  only  four  oaks  in  our 
mountains  which  may  properly  be 
called  trees.  Named  in  the  order  of  their 
altitudinal  distribution  they  are:  the 
Scrub  Oak  (Quercus  dumosa)'  the 
Wislizenus  Oak  (Quercus  wislizeni)* 
the  Golden  Oak  (Q.  chrysolepisf  and 
the  California  or  Kellogg  Oak  (Q.  kel-" 
logii) . 

The  Scrub  oak  is  a  noticeable  feature 
of  the  chaparral  slopes  where  it  forms 
dense  thickets  and  grows  more  like  a 
shrub  than  a  tree.  It  is  only  in  favor- 
able, moist  locations  that  it  becomes  ar- 
boreal. It  is  classed  with  the  white  oaks 
since  it  ripens  its  acorns  the  first  sea- 
son. Practically  all  the  black  oaks,  of 
which  the  California  oak  is  an  example, 
ripen  their  nuts  at  the  end  of  the  second 
season.  The  Golden  oak,  while  having 
a  wood  characteristic  of  the  White  oak, 
produces  its  acorns  also  in  two  seasons. 

77 


THE  OAKS 

1.  Scrub   Oak 

2.  Kellogg  Oak 


3.  Golden  Oak  with  male  blossoms 

4.  Acorn  of  Golden  Oak 

5.  Acorn  of  Kellogg  Oak 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

The  Wislizenus  Oak  invades  our 
mountains  and  composes  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  upper  chaparral  growth 
(5000-7000  feet).  Its  leaves  are  all 
plane;  lustrous  green  above,  pale-  or 
yellowish-green  below,  entire  or  toothed. 
The  acorns  are  narrow,  long  and  deep- 
cupped. 

The  best  field  marks  of  the  Golden 
oak  are  the  golden  yellow  powder  which 
covers  the  underside  of  the  young 
leaves,  and  the  golden  fuzz-covered 
cups  of  the  acorns,  hence  the  specific 
term  chrysolepis.  "It  is  the  only  one 
of  our  trees  which  possesses  immunity 
from  wanton  attack.  Save  for  a  definite 
purpose  no  one  meddles  with  it,  its  local 
name,  iron  oak,  being  well  merited." 

The  California  oak  grows  at  an  eleva- 
tion of  about  5000  feet  and  is  a  promi- 
nent tree  of  the  yellow  pine  belt.  The 
general,  graceful,  aspiring  form  of  the 
tree,  and  the  deeply  cleft  leaves  at  once 
distinguish  it  from  the  other  three  oaks. 

79 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

It  is  to  this  tree  that  the  Southern 
Indians  look  for  the  best  acorns  for 
meal-making.  Rivaling  in  picturesque- 
ness  the  pinyon  gatherings  among  the 
desert  Indians  are  the  acorn  hunts  of 
the  valley  and  mountain  dwelling  In- 
dians found  nearer  the  coast.  When 
the  lovely  golden  days  of  late  October 
come  and  the  ground  lies  thickly  strewn 
with  scarlet,  frost-tinted  leaves  and  the 
rich  brown  nuts  of  the  oaks,  parties  of 
two  to  a  dozen  Indians  mounted  on 
ponies  and  followed  by  Indian  dogs, 
make  their  way  up  the  steep  trails  to  the 
oak  groves.  If  the  rancherias  are  far 
from  the  nutting  orchards  pails,  kettles, 
and  other  necessities  for  making  camps 
are  fastened  to  the  saddles  and  several 
days  are  spent  in  the  open,  the  length  of 
the  stay  depending  largely  upon  the 
rapidity  with  which  the  chattering 
squaws  and  children  fill  the  sacks  and 
burden  baskets  with  acorns.  Since 
acorns  which  have  been  on  the  ground  a 
few  days  soon  spoil  with  mildew,  only 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

the  freshly  fallen  nuts  are  gathered. 
When  the  nut  sacks  are  full  the  ponies 
which  have  been  tethered  close  to  the 
camp  are  again  saddled  and  the  merry, 
gaily  dressed  party  makes  its  way  to  the 
villages  below. 

The  acorns  are  soon  shelled,  stored  in 
bags  and  hung  high  on  the  rafters  of  the 
wickiup  or  stored  in  enormous  baskets, 
perched  on  platforms  or  bowlders  out  of 
doors  and  out  of  the  reach  of  rodents. 
From  time  to  time  as  they  are  required 
for  food  they  are  taken  down  and 
ground  in  a  mortar  to  a  very  fine  flour 
or  meal.  This  is  placed  in  a  porous  bas- 
ket and  warm  water  slowly  poured  over 
and  through  the  meal  until  the  bitter 
tannin  is  leached  out.  The  process  re- 
quires about  four  hours.  Once  prepared 
the  meal  is  immediately  cooked  into  a 
mush  and  consumed  the  same  day.  The 
Indians  are  very  fond  of  it.  Personally 
I  cannot  say  it  is  unpleasant  eating.  The 
prepared  mush  has  a  reddish  appear- 
ance and  a  rich  nutty  flavor  and  is  con- 
si 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

sidered  good  eating  by  many  white  set- 
tlers when  served  with  cream  and  sugar. 
Its  food  value  is  exceptionally  high  and 
the  Indians  all  put  on  weight  during  the 
acorn  season.  Some  students  claim  the 
rotund  form  of  the  California  Indian  is 
due  to  the  constant  eating  of  acorns  for 
so  many  generations. 

The  oaks  and  the  roses  seem  to  have 
been  specially  chosen  by  the  gall-mak- 
ing insects  for  home-sites.  Any  day's 
hunt  will  reward  you  with  a  half  dozen 
forms  each  as  individual  and  curious  as 
can  be.  Most  familiar  of  all  are  the  oak 
"apples"  so  long  prized  by  the  ancients 
as  a  remedy  in  disease.  These  abnormal 
growths  so  rosy  and  round  are  often  so 
numerous  as  to  make  the  injured  tree  ap- 
pear laden  with  fruit.  They  are  due  to 
the  irritation  of  the  plant  tissues  by  the 
tiny  larvae  of  Cynipid  gall-flies.  By 
some  extraordinary  and  curious  instinct 
the  female  selects  certain  sites  most 
adapted  for  the  production  of  the  gall 
and  with  her  awl-like  ovi-positor  pierces 

82 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

the  tender  growing  tissues  of  the  leaf  or 
twig  and  there  lays  her  eggs.  In  two  or 
three  weeks  tiny  footless  larvae  are  born 
and  begin  to  feed  upon  the  sap  of  the 
vascular  plant  tissue  in  which  they  lie 
embedded.  Then  with  the  salivary  se- 
cretions and  physical  irritation  produced 
by  the  larvae  as  the  exciting  cause,  the 
gall  begins  to  grow,  and  never  ceases  its 
abnormal  development  until  the  larvae 
reach  their  full  growth.  Upon  maturing 
of  the  larvae,  the  gall  begins  to  dry  up 
and  harden,  thus  forming  a  snug 
house  for  the  insects  during  their  period 
of  pupation.  Later  upon  development 
into  full  grown  flies,  the  tiny  insects 
gnaw  their  way  out  of  the  dead  galls  to 
prick  in  new  leaves  and  lay  eggs  for  an- 
other life  cycle. 

These  gall  flies  are  tiny  two-winged 
insects,  the  largest  being  not  more  than 
one-third  of  an  inch  long.  Curiously, 
the  individuals  of  some  species  are  all 
females.  An  additional  interesting  fea- 
ture is  the  fact  that  often  in  the  same 

83 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

gall  with  the  gall  makers  are  other  in- 
sect guests  or  parasites.  These  "degen- 
erate loafers/'  are  often  present  in 
amazing  numbers  and  though  they  have 
done  nothing  in  the  making  of  the  gall- 
house,  feed  upon  the  sap  and  enjoy  all 
the  securities  of  the  home  of  the  host. 

On  the  trunks  of  the  Kellogg  Oaks 
are  often  found  great  round  excrescent 
growths  which  are  the  result  of  the 
trees'  effort  to  seal  over  the  stubs  of 
dead,  broken  limbs.  The  process  of 
covering  begins  at  the  base  of  the  stub 
and  the  laying  on  of  layers  of  tissue 
often  continues  until  the  dead  wood  is 
entirely  engulfed  in  living  tissue.  Even 
after  this  isolation  of  unsound  wood  is 
accomplished  the  abnormal  tissues  often 
continue  to  grow,  layer  after  layer  of 
wood  being  laid  on,  until  occasionally 
some  of  the  grotesque  and  peculiar  out- 
growths are  almost  the  size  of  barrels. 

Live  Oaks  (Quercus  agrifolia),  stragglers  from  the 
broad,  lowland  valleys,  are  occasionally  found  in  the 
lower  canyons.  They  may  be  distinguished  from  the 
Golden  Oaks  by  the  fact  that  the  leaves,  always 
toothed,  are  convex  on  the  upper  surface. 

84 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 


"The  California  Scrub  Oak,"  says  Sudworth,"  un- 
questionably varies  more  than  all  our  other  oaks  in 
the  form  and  size  of  its  leaves  and  acorns.  No  sort  of 
satisfactory  harmony  can  be  established  between  the 
perplexing  phases  of  its  development,  and  one  is  likely 
to  be  hopelessly  confused  without  a  most  comprehen- 
sive field  study  of  the  bushes  and  small  trees  belonging 
to  this  species."  One  of  the  best  field  marks  is  the 
tuberculate  scales  of  the  acorn  cup.  The  tubercles  are 
often  so  regular  "as  to  suggest  a  quilted  cushion." 


ACORN  TYPES 

1,  2.  Acorn  types  of  the  Scrub  Oak 
3,  4,  6.  Acorn  types  of  the  Wislizenus  Oak 

5.  Typical  broad,  thin  acorn  of  the  Golden  Oak 

85 


PALO  BLANCO  OR  HACKBERRY 

Celtis  reticulata  TORREY. 

During  the  summer  of  1919  Mr.  S.  B. 
Parish,  the  foremost  authority  on  the 
flora  of  Southern  California,  became  in- 
terested in  verifying  a  statement  to  the 
effect  that  a  certain  Daniel  Cleveland,  a 
botanist,  had  some  forty  years  ago  col- 
lected specimens  of  this  rare  tree  "on 
the  summit  of  Laguna  Mountain,  San 
Diego  County/'  "This  seemed  an  im- 
probable place  to  me,"  said  Mr.  Parish 
in  a  letter  to  the  author  describing  the 
trip  in  search  of  the  tree,  "and,  indeed, 
an  effort  to  re-discover  the  tree  there  had 
been  made,  and  had  failed.  It  seemed 
like  hunting  a  needle  in  a  haystack,  to 
find  a  single  tree  in  the  chaparral  moun- 
tains of  San  Diego  County.  But  I 
learned  that  Mr.  Cleveland  had  started 
from  Campo  and  as  roads  are  few  there- 
abouts, by  following  his  route  I  had  lit- 
tle difficulty  in  finding  Cleveland's 

86 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

identical  tree,  which  people  there  say  is 
the  only  one  in  all  the  region. 

"There  are  about  a  dozen  trunks,  2-6 
inches  in  diameter,  in  a  close  clump,  ap- 
pearing as  if  they  might  come  from  a 
single  underground  stump ;  the  tops  are 
interlocked,  forming  a  clump  15  feet 
high  and  25-30  feet  spread.  The  place 
is  Thing's  Ranch,  15  miles  from 
Campo." 

The  alternate  leaves  of  Celtis  are  thick  and  leathery, 
rough  (sand-papery),  "often  covered  with  wart-like 
galls'*  and  strongly  netted-veined.  They  are  dark 
green  on  the  upper  sides  and  pale  yellowish  green  be- 
neath. The  fruit  is  orange-red  when  mature  and  about 
as  large  as  a  pea.  The  small  flowers  are  greenish- 
yellow  and  are  borne  on  slender  stems  springing  from 
the  leaf-axils.  Some  of  the  flowers  have  only  male  or- 
gans while  others  are  perfect,  that  is,  they  have  both 
male  and  female  organs. 

This  Celtis  occurs  in  New  Mexico,  Nevada,  South- 
ern Utah,  in  California  (western  rim  of  the  Colorado 
Desert)  and  in  Lower  California  (San  Julian  Canyon 
and  Cerros  Island). 


87 


THE  CALIFORNIA  LAUREL 

Umbellularia  californica  NUTT. 

The  California  Bay  is  a  close  relative 
of  the  Sassafras  of  the  Eastern  United 
States  and  like  it  is  a  lover  of  damp  soils 
and  clings  to  the  cool  stream  borders. 
The  deep,  green,  willow-like  leaves  are 
as  glossy  as  satin  and  exceedingly  rich 
in  an  oil  whose  spicy  fragrance  per- 
fumes the  air  for  considerable  distances 
about  the  tree.  The  small  greenish-yel- 
low flowers  appear  from  January  to 
April,  in  small  clusters  at  the  ends  of  the 
branches. 

"The  native  tribes  roasted  the  nuts 
and  used  them  for  food,  but  apparently 
did  not  eat  great  quantities  of  them  at  a 
time,  using  them  rather  as  a  stimulant 
or  condiment.  As  prepared  by  the  In- 
dians they  are  not  merely  edible  but 
sweet  as  chestnuts." — Jepson.  The  oil 
has  anti-septic  and  anesthetic  properties 
and  is  useful  as  a  flea  exterminator. 


MOUNTAIN   LAUREL  AND   SYCAMORE 

1.  Laurel  leaf  and  blossom 

2.  Fruit 

3.  Flower    dissected 

4.  Seed-balls  of  Sycamore 

5.  Male    flower    clusters 

6.  Sycamore  leaf 

7.  Seed  enlarged 

8.  Button  to  which  seeds  are  attached 


* 
THE  CALIFORNIA  SYCAMORE 

Platanus  racemosa  NUTT. 

Wherever  a  little  dampness  occurs 
along  the  lower  stream  borders  and 
bowlder  strewn  washes  the  Sycamores 
plant  their  roots  and  prove  their  aesthe- 
tic value  as  ornamentors  of  canyon  land- 
scapes. Here  they  grow,  as  Audubon 
notes  in  his  Journal,  "with  their  giant 
limbs  extending  laterally"  and  crowned 
with  graceful  sprays  of  rich,  green  sun- 
loving  leaves,  adding  a  charm  to  the 
countryside  such  as  no  other  tree  of 
Dame  Nature's  family  can  do. 

Have  you  ever  wandered  alone  in  the 
rich,  new,  warm  sunshine  of  spring  at 
that  "winsome  hour  of  the  year,"  to  use 
Maeterlinck's  expression/'  'when  flow- 
ers keep  holiday,"  and  enhaled  the 
sweet  aroma  of  the  bronzed  and  bursting 
buds  of  the  sycamore?  Have  you  ever 
sat  at  eventide  among  the  bowlders 
when  all  is  bathed  with  the  amber  light 

90 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

of  the  setting  sun  and  watched  the  bees 
as  they  flew  about  in  tuneful  circles, 
heard  the  outbursts  of  melody  from  hap- 
py birds  perched  among  the  branches — 
then  you  know  the  sweet  companionship 
of  the  sycamores. 

The  California  sycamore  belongs  to 
the  Plane-tree  family  and  is  not  to  be 
confused  with  the  sycamore  of  the  Bible 
(properly  spelled  sycomore),  a  tree 
which  is  closely  allied  to  the  common 
fig.  (Sycomore  means  fig-mulberry). 

The  flowers — male  and  female — oc- 
cur on  different  parts  of  the  same  tree. 
Both  hang  in  ball-like  clusters,  the  male 
groups  being  the  smaller.  The  dense 
heads  of  fruit  are  made  up  of  numerable 
nutlets  at  whose  bases  are  circlets  of 
many  long,  stiff  hairs.  These  fruit 
clusters  of  two  to  seven  heads  are  ar- 
tistically arranged  on  pendent  stems 
and  persist  until  the  following  spring. 
These,  according  to  Evermann,  are 
greedily  eaten  by  the  band-tailed  pig- 
eons, as  many  as  thirty-five  of  the  ball- 

91 


MOUNTAIN      TREES 

like  clusters  having  been  found  in  the 
crop  of  a  single  bird. 

During  the  period  of  growth  the  win- 
ter buds  are  neatly  hidden  away  in  the 
hollow  bases  of  the  leaves  and  only 
when  the  leaves  fall  do  they  get  their 
first  peep  into  the  world  of  light.  And 
have  you  ever  noticed  the  little  broad, 
frilled  leaf-stipules  which  like  little 
capes  encircle  the  graceful  angular 
stems  just  beneath  each  leaf? 


92 


CURL-LEAF  OR  MOUNTAIN  MAHOGANY 

Cercocarpus  ledifolius  NUTT. 

On  the  high,  rocky  ranges  on  the  des- 
ert side  of  the  San  Bernardino,  San  Ja- 
cinto  and  San  Gabriel  Mountains,  the 
Mountain  Mahogany  takes  on  the  form 
of  a  small,  angular-stemmed  tree.  It 
has  wood  almost  as  hard  as  the  iron- 
wood  of  the  desert  (Olneya  tesota) ,  and 
small  linear,  smooth-margined,  revolute, 
leathery  leaves  adapted  to  resist  the  in- 
tense heat  and  dryness  of  its  home.  Most 
conspicuous  of  its  characters  and  one 
which  gives  the  genus  Cercocarpus  its 
name  is  the  long,  stiff,  plumy,  twisted, 
tail-like  flower  style  which  is  adherent 
on  the  hard  one-seeded  fruit.  At  times 
of  seed  dispersal  these  hairy  forms  are 
so  thick  as  to  give  the  tree  an  appear- 
ance of  being  covered  with  thousands 
of  tiny  feathers. 

Because  of  its  extreme  hardness  and 
resistance   to  decay,    the    Indians  and 

93 


MOUNTAIN  MAHOGANY 


MOUNTAIN     TREES 

early  settlers  made  much  use  of  the 
wood  in  the  making  of  simple  imple- 
ments of  agriculture,  such  as  grubbing 
sticks  and  tool  handles.  It  makes  good, 
although  crooked,  post  timber  and  is  a 
most  excellent  firewood. 

The  Birch-leaf  Mahogany  (Cerocarpus  be tulae folios) 
conspicuous  also  because  of  its  feathery-tailed  fruits, 
should  not  be  confused  with  the  above.  It  may  be 
distinguished  by  its  wedge-shaped  leaves  which  are 
toothed  at  the  broad,  upper  end,  and  distinctly  veined 
on  both  surfaces.  Very  tall  specimens  are  found  be- 
low Forest  Home  in  Mill  Creek  Canyon. 


95 


BOX  ELDER  AND  MAPLES 

1.  Box  Elder 

2.  Big-leaf  Maple 


Box  ELDER  AND  MAPLES 

Neither  the  Box  Elders  nor  Maples  are 
found  plentifully  within  our  region.  The 
first  named  tree  (Acer  Negundo  LINN. 
var.  californicum)  occurs  occasionally 
along  streams  in  the  San  Jacinto  and 
San  Bernardino  Mountains.  (Locally 
abundant  along  Potato  and  Edgar  Can- 
yons) .  k  is  not  the  same  as  the  Box 
Elder  of  the  Mid-Western  United  States, 
but  a  variety. 

The  Black  or  Big-leaf  maple  (Acer 
macrophyllum) ,  generally  occurs  as  a 
solitary  tree  in  our  mountain  canyons  in 
dark,  damp,  secluded  spots.  Its  large, 
dark,  deep-lobed  leaves  measure  4  to 
10  inches  across.  The  thick  bark  is 
often  very  rough  with  long  furrows. 
The  tree  forms  a  spreading  crown  and 
often  grows  very  tall.  The  mountain- 
eers have  made  sugar  from  the  sap. 


97 


MOUNTAIN  DOGWOOD 


WESTERN  FLOWERING  DOGWOOD 

Cornus  Nuttallii  AUDUBON. 

For  rich  and  varied  autumnal  color 
beauty  surely  the  lovely  Dogwood  takes 
the  prize.  With  the  first  touches  of  frost, 
the  bright,  soft,  green  leaves  begin  to 
color  and  then  each  succeeding  day  sees 
the  rich  hues  doubled  and  trebled  until 
every  tree  is  a  blaze  of  scarlet  glory. 

In  the  spring,  especially  in  early  May, 
these  same  trees  were  covered  with  nu- 
merous greenish  blossom  heads,  each 
surrounded  by  six  white  showy  bracts, 
so  that  the  inflorescence  is  often  3  to  5 
inches  across.  The  masses  of  creamy 
blossoms  banked  against  the  delicate 
green  of  the  ferns  in  the  deep  canyon 
shade  is  most  striking — a  sight  to  re- 
ward the  mountain  traveller  at  this  sea- 
son. It  is  frequent  in  the  lower  Yellow 
Pine  belt. 


CORNUS  is  the  ancient  Latin  name  for  horn;  in  ref- 
erence to  the  hardness  of  the  wood. 

99 


OREGON    ASH 


THE  ASH 

Fraxinus  oregana  NUTT. 

Some  day  when  on  your  tree  hunt 
you  will  wander  down  some  sun-parched 
stream  bed  leading  to  the  desert  and 
there  you  will  find  the  Ash  trees  grow- 
ing. If  it  is  winter  you  will  find  them 
leafless  and  at  their  best.  And  you  can 
then  study  the  endless  ramifications  of 
their  branches  and  get  the  charm  of 
form  instead  of  color.  Nature  is  fertile 
in  her  devisings  and  no  two  trees  can  be 
alike.  The  best  time  to  catch  the  beauty 
of  these  tree  outlines  is  at  the  evening 
hour.  Looking  down  some  westward 
sloping  canyon  out  upon  the  silent  and 
colorful  desert  you  see  the  bright  lights 
behind  them  as  they  stand  in  dark  relief 
against  the  gold-burnished,  maroon- 
streaked  sunset  sky. 


101 


THE   ELDER 


THE  ELDER 

Sambucus  glauca*  NUTT. 

The  Elder  is  a  member  of  the  Honey- 
suckle family  and  conspicuous  for  the 
great  crops  of  greenish-white  or  pale 
blue  berries  produced  in  late  summer. 
Though  rather  insipid  they  are  esteemed 
highly  by  many  housewives  as  a  filling 
for  pies.  Many  of  the  Indians  will  not 
use  them  raw,  claiming  that  they  often 
produce  severe  sickness.  This,  how- 
ever, is  not  the  fault  of  the  fruit,  but  is 
due  rather  to  a  small  red  spider  which 
lives  in  the  fruit  cluster  and  which  is  un- 
knowingly eaten  with  the  berries.  The 
dark,  roughly  fissured  bark,  steeped  in 
hot  water,  is  used  as  a  remedy  in  dropsy, 
while  the  tea  from  the  flower  is  said  to 
be  efficacious  as  a  fever  remedy. 


*  SAMBUCUS — In  Greek  Sambux — from  which  a  musi- 
cal instrument  was  made — sackbut.  Glauca  means, 
covered  with  a  bloom  or  fine  white  powder  of  wax  that 
rubs  off — referring  to  the  glaucous  berry. 

103 


MADRONO 

Arbutus  menziesii  PURSH. 

The  Madrono  is  a  close  relative  of  the 
familiar  manzanita.  It  is  a  striking  ever- 
green tree  with  deep  red  bark  and  large, 
glossy,  green  leaves  and  once  seen  is 
not  easily  mistaken  for  any  tree  of  its 
range.  The  few  trees  found  in  South- 
ern California  are  restricted  to  small 
groups  near  the  Mount  Wilson  and 
Sturdevant  trails  at  an  altitude  of  about 
3000  feet,  in  Las  Tunas  Canyon  in 
the  Santa  Monica  Mountains,  and  the 
Palomar  Mountains  above  Pauma. 


104 


INDEX 


Abies  concolor,  57 

Acer,  97 

Alder,  73 

Alnus  rhombifolia,  73 

Arbutus   menziesii,   104 

Ash,  101 

Aspen,  71 

Big-Cone   Spruce,  53 
Birch-leaf  mahogany,  95 
Box  Elder,  97 

Cedar,  61 

Celtis  reticulata,  86 
Cercocarpus,  93 
Cornus  nuttallii,  99 
Cottonwoods,  68 
Coulter  Pine,   19 

Digger  Pine,  26 
Dogwood,  99 

Elderberry,  103 

Fir,  57 

Four-leaf  Pine,  43 
Fraxinus  oregana,  101 

Hackberry,  86 

Jeffrey  Pine,  34 
Juniper,  65 

Laurel,  88 
Libocedrus,  61 
Limber  Pine,  45 


Madrona,  104 
Maple,  97 
Oaks,  77 

Parry  Pine,  43 

Pinyon,  9 

Pinus  attenuata,  39 

coulteri,  19 

flexilis,  45 

jeffreyi,  34 

lambertiana,  49 

monophylla,  9 

murrayana,  13 

ponderosa,  34 

quadrifolia,  43 

sabiniana,  26 
Platanus,  90 
Pseudotsuga,  53 

Quercus  agrifolia,  84 
californica,  79 
chrysolepis,  79 
dumosa,  85,  77 
wislizeni,  79 

Sambucus  glauca,  103 
Salix,  72 
Sugar  Pine,  49 
Sycamore,  90 

Tamarack,  13 
Umbellularia,  88 

Western  Yellow  Pine,  29 
Wislizens  Oak,  79 


ERRATA 

Lines  10  and  11,  page  19,  should  read:     DR.  THOMAS 
COULTER,  the  distinguished  Irish  botanist. 

Fig  5,  p.  85,  should  read:    Typical,  broad,  thick  acorn. 
Line  4,  p.  49,  should  read:    Bark  of  young  trees,  etc. 


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